To effectively manage installation and upgrades in a PeopleSoft setup it’s important for the PeopleSoft community, especially those who are in application maintenance to learn about the following:

  1. The common elements of PeopleSoft application maintenance
  2. How to navigate the PeopleSoft landscape and
  3. To work alongside product support for effectively managing their installations and upgrades

 

In support of the above points, here are the 7 elements one may come across while looking at code changes to be made into a PeopleSoft release:

  1. PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM): A Lifecycle Management tool that enables customers to lower their costs and stay current on application maintenance using selective adoption. For additional information about PUM, refer to PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) Home Page (Doc ID 1641843.2)
  2. PeopleSoft Release Patchset (PRP): A patch or patches that must be delivered in-between PUM image release cycles. PRPs are searchable and downloadable individually from My Oracle Support (MOS), but the key thing to keep in mind about PRPs is that they MUST (and can only) be applied to the latest PUM image (not directly to a Target environment)
  3. PeopleTools Patch : A collection of fixes addressing different areas within PeopleTools. PeopleTools patches are posted to My Oracle Support on a regular cadence. E.g. 8.60.13 (13 being the patch number) GA’ed on Apr 12th 2024.  
  4. Critical Patch Updates (CPU): CPU provide security fixes and other critical fixes that Oracle has decided to include. Oracle’s Critical Patch Update is published on a quarterly basis. The schedule can be found on Oracle’s page, Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Bulletins.
  5. PeopleTools Infrastructure DPK (IDPK):  Infrastructure DPKs, also known as Infra DPKs or PT-INFRA DPKs, are delivered with updated critical patch updates (CPUs) for WebLogic, Tuxedo, JDK and Oracle Database Client. They are to be downloaded from My Oracle Support. They are available for Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX. IDPKs are provide about 2-3 weeks after the CPU patch date so that the latest CPU fixes can be bundled, tested and delivered.
  6. Proof of Concept (POC) patch: One-off fixes available only for escalated, critical situations with significant business impact that may be delivered in an expedited fashion with less than full regression testing. POC patches are customer specific and delivered in a password-protected mode through My Oracle Support. The expectation is that the customer will test the POC in their specific environment and stay current by applying the posted PeopleTools patches once the criticality of the situation has passed and the POC is incorporated into a PeopleTools patch.   
  7. Enhancement request: Desired new functionality in a PeopleSoft application or PeopleTools component. All Enhancement requests, except for PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions, are now logged via the Idea space on the MOS Communities for the product.

 

For more information please see: Oracle PeopleSoft Enhancement Request to My Oracle Support Community FAQ (Doc ID 2048019.1)